Lumia 822 popular among Verizon customers, grey and red versions sold out

The Lumia 822 (or Lumia 820 for those of us outside the US) is a Nokia Windows Phone 8 device that sits comfortably next to the Lumia 920, albeit with a few features missing from the specifications sheet. The smartphone is exclusive to Verizon and the US mobile operator has also taken the opportunity to launch a red version of the device for Valentine's Day. This colour, along with grey are currently both sold out.

It's no surprise that consumers are taking to the Windows Phone. It's a solid looking handset with some serious horsepower under the shell. The Lumia 822 sports a 1.5GHz dual-core chip, 1800mAh battery, 4G LTE, 4.3" display, 16GB storage (with SD support), 8MP rear shooter and a front-facing camera for those Skype video calls. Should you be looking for a unique experience, but not a Lumia 920, the 822 isn't a sacrifice at all.

The Lumia 822 remains available in both black and white versions, which can be purchased for free when taken out with a two-year contract. As well as the cheap pricing, impressive specifications and attractive design, the Lumia 822 has strong feedback from consumers with 78% recommending the product to others - it has a 4.3 / 5 rating, just shy of the iPhone 5's 4.5.

We've covered in the past how the Lumia 920 and other Windows Phones were experiencing issues with stock levels in multiple markets. It's positive to see Verizon in the states suffer from similar problems. Whether or not this is related to a potential lack of stock coming out of the holiday season, we'd like to believe the handset has proven to be quite the popular choice.

Unfortunately, there's no word on when the colours will once again be available. Verizon is likely to pump more numbers into the warehouse before Valentine's Day hits.

Reader comments

Lumia 822 popular among Verizon customers, grey and red versions sold out

I don't get it with some of these comments about why it's Nokia's fault Verizon is out of stock (or LG with the Nexus 4) they (Nokia/LG) don't put the purchase order in.
Verizon says we want this many, Nokia sells them stock, when Verizon's (or anyone's) stock levels hit a certain level it triggers an order alert, then someone looks at the alert and what's happening and feed back and only then do cariers or stores order more stock. Nokia can stock pile what they think people will want but that doesn't make sense to do with a variant because they only sell that to one client not too mention having large reserves of phones which change every 6 months is a poor use of capital which if they end up with high stock levels at the end they basically end up writing off and loosing money on.

I thought it was odd that the initial run of the 822 wasn't talked about more on the front page here. The device was sold out from day one. Unless the supply was only 10,000 that was impressive. My family has 3 of them and it took us all a while to get them because of being sold out. Definitely an underrated device. Everyone that notices it is curious about and surprised how fast and smooth of a device it is. Not to mention for all of the ugly and brick remarks it gets from professional reviews, its a handsome device. The first time I opened the box and it was sitting there recessed in the red Verizon box I thought I had the wrong phone.

I got the red first day out. My son has a 920 and there's nothing it has that I miss. It a very good fast phone that fits perfect on your hand. The 822 looks much better in person than the pictures give it credit for

agreed... I switched from a Thunderbolt to an 822. Verizon was terrible with updates for the Thunderbolt (they just released ICS for it today... wow...) so I am concerned that every other major carrier has updated to Portico and Verizon is just twiddling their thumbs. I want to be current, that is why I switched to WP8, to avoid the update delays and fragmentation and now... update delays...

The irony is it might be correct that a batch of maybe 4-5000 only was delivered to Verizon.. Still sold out is always good news.. It means the demand is there and its exceeding supply chain expectations

There are 5 822s in my family and boy are they slick. Everyone loves them so far. Also, the Verizon rep at my store told me that the windows phones are "really starting to take off". She was very surprised. I think the commercials are working.

I agree!!
Everyday I see more and more Windows Phones, theres always a lag time between marketing plans and actual results, and I think were starting to see the results :D
and damn convincing a whole family to switch to Windows! *high fives*

Hopefully you made sure she would be able to do everything on WP that she could do on her iPhone. If not, you're going to get pestered all the time, and you'll risk tarnishing the WP brand in her eyes.

Might be time we retired the "sold out" stories when it comes to Windows Phone or Surfaces etc. Because without fail we end up with a situation where for example only 700,000 Lumias were actually sold for the quarter...or 900,000 Surfaces total.

In other words, "sold out" means literally nothing in these cases and claiming Windows Phone is "popular" ends up being a stretch at best.

PS I'm all in with Windows Phone and Windows 8, I just don't like these sort of rah rah articles.

I agree. WP is in a situation where it cannot benefit from being "sold out" because it means potential customers will be directed to competing products. This, obviously, would change when they get a better market share. Also, like you pointed out, sold out in this situation has an inflated meaning because it's more due to lack of inventory than staggering demand.

True, but being sold out means it literally sold more than what the oem projected the sales to be, so in fact, its still a good thing. Just because the "other guys" are selling more still shouldn't take away from what clearly still means success For MS...

I understand the notion that its good to be out of stock, but I can't get behind it unless it's during the launch of a flagship device. The 822 should never be out of stock because what that actually means is that Nokia and WP8 are losing out on sales. Sorry to nitpick but I'm just sick of seeing that idea spread around as a "good thing." The 822 isn't going to build a demand because its hard to get

This isn't Nokia's fault. Orders are placed based on sales estimate and Verizon sold out its entire Vday holiday inventory in just few days. Although there is no word on the red color, the Grey one should be available on Tuesday again.